The advertising account to promote Virgin Media O2, following the merger of the two British telecoms companies last year, has been awarded to VCCP.
Following a two-way pitch between the incumbents from both companies, VCCP will be retained to work with the newly combined business.
Virgin Media O2 is the new company that launched last June, combining two of the U.K.’s largest communications and broadband providers, however both will continue to offer their respective products while introducing joint services in the future.
The process was led by Simon Groves, director of brand and marketing who was named as the overall lead for marketing communications. He previously held the same role at O2 prior to the merger.
A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said: “We have taken the decision to proceed with VCCP as the lead creative agency for our newly merged entity Virgin Media O2.”
“We’d like to thank both VCCP and Adam&EveDDB for their outstanding work for both brands during their tenure and as part of the pitch process,” they added.
VCCP and O2
O2 was one of VCCP’s founding clients and in October last year was involved in the launch of “Volt” by devising an integrated campaign which promised existing customers of both companies that they would bring together the best they had to offer as they combined.
The year prior to that, the agency also introduced O2’s robotic brand mascot Buble who has featured in solo brand campaigns ever since.
Virgin Media appointed Adam&EveDDB in 2019. The agency produced several brand campaigns, most recently one that was fronted by a skater girl which introduced the end line, “We’re better, connected,” reflecting the growing integration of the two businesses.
Following the merger, both media companies lost senior women within their marketing team as entertainment group Global media announced that Cilesta Van Doorn would join from Virgin Media as its new chief marketing officer and Nina Bibby left O2 after eight years of heading up its marketing. She has since joined Verizon as svp of consumer segment marketing.
